Headquarters
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia

Network Co-Director
Madjid Mohseni

Knowledge User Co-Director and Interim Board Chair
Irving Leblanc

Sustainable outcomes in drinking water health for Indigenous and other non-urban communities in Canada

The opportunity

Six million people living in Indigenous and non-urban (I+NU) communities in Canada face highly disproportionate exposure to negative health, social and economic impacts from untreated and contaminated drinking water. Problems are rooted in the complexities of knowledge sharing and utilization – no single individual or organization possesses all of the knowledge needed to fully assess complex issues and solve fundamental problems unique to each community.

How RESEAU is seizing the opportunity

RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation’s (RESEAU) goal is to accelerate the creation of sustainable improvements in drinking water health for Canadian I+NU communities. RESEAU’s Community Circle™ model for innovation customizes solutions for communities, with decisions, practices, technologies and services tailored to a community’s unique needs. It systematically collects and assesses existing knowledge of potential solutions, while capturing and weighing the perspective of all the stakeholders involved in I+NU water system upgrades. RESEAU’s helps partners and stakeholders understand and act upon the knowledge, skills, values and ethical responsibilities required to innovate, and to embrace the notion that issues of water quality in I+NU communities are directly connected to broader health and social challenges.

Among the results

RESEAU’s mission translates into an innovation platform, articulated along the regeneration of the technological and socioeconomic environments, and four functional evolution streams:

• Community Circle™: Designing innovative platforms to generate insights from combining technological solutions and rightsholders’/stakeholders’ perspectives, capabilities, and contributions, to build memorable community experiences. RESEAU is engaging 15 regional I+NU “anchor” community groups through Community Circle™ to become a stabilizing force, helping nearby communities to make choices pertaining to self-governance and self-determination, as well as sustainability.
• Streamlined Approach to Implementing Localized Solutions (SAILS)™: Scaling innovative design, development, and implementation model to drive transformational change towards building lasting community acceptance. RESEAU is creating novel opportunities for sharing experimental evidence that captures community experiences and reveals nuances about what happens when alternative solutions are explored for Lifting Long-Lasting Boil Water Advisories.
• Digital Circle: Designing innovative platforms to enhance immersive experience and connectivity among representatives of value chain partners, talent, and communities. This includes the Operators’ Walkthrough Lab and Immersive Professional Development Platform (OWL).
• Ethics, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Orchestration: Redesigning policies, procedures, and incentives to embed ethical guideposts, and culturally responsive evaluation metrics within rural water-health innovation. RESEAU is propagating the first-ever Canadian Framework for Ethical Water health Innovation based on synthesized stakeholder knowledge and experience to guide I+NU water/community health improvement projects and processes. RESEAU is also developing a culturally responsive evaluation framework for assessing innovative technologies, services, regulations, services, regulations and policies that enhances understanding of barriers and solutions.

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